community organizing - sage publications inc · community organizing conflict and consensus in this...

1

COMMUNITYORGANIZINGConflict and Consensus

In this chapter, you will learn:

◆ There are many different community organizing approaches andmethods.

◆ Saul Alinsky is the most famous community organizer of all time.

◆ Definitions of conflict organizing and consensus organizing.

◆ Your own personality shapes the method of community organizingyou will like.

If you have any image at all of a community organizer, you probablypicture a person (male, I bet) with an angry look, firing up a crowd ofpeople to march on down somewhere to get somebody to take notice and

start treating some group better. The organizer looks a little disheveled. Theorganizer talks fast. The organizer is pretty upset. If this were your image

1

01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

of a community organizer, I would equate it to the image of a therapist witha notepad gazing over a client stretched across a leather couch, saying withconcerned reflection “hmmmm.” The therapist is pondering. The therapistis detached. The therapist is analytical. In other words, your image would bestereotypical. Therapists come in all shapes, sizes, sexes, and sexual orien-tations and use approaches that are not only varied and complex, but alsoare sometimes contradictory. Community organizing has the same mixesand matches. There are a variety of approaches. Community organizerscome in a variety of packages and styles. They sometimes contradict oneanother. So you can already see, you might have a little learning to do.You donot want to look at community organizing in one narrow, stereotypical way.

Robert Fisher (1994), in his book Let the People Decide, takes youthrough the history of community organizing. He shows you in detail howeconomics, politics, and world events shape and influence different com-munity organizing approaches. Many other writers have tried to categorizethese approaches by model, type, and definition. Many of these writers areacademics trying to fit people’s works into boxes and diagrams. In the realworld of community organizing, nothing fits neatly into a box on a page.Many organizers think much more flexibly. They approach each day willingto do almost anything that might help a community. So let’s start from a dif-ferent spot. Let’s look at why those who practice community organizingenter it, and try to see if you would fit into it. Later, we’ll examine some ofthe different methods and approaches.

As Fisher (1994) says, no matter what historical era you choose, there seemto be some of the same things that drive people to want to be community orga-nizers or at least gain some community organizing skills. Try to imagine thehilarious blue-collar comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, taking his trademark routine“then you just might be a redneck,”but applying it instead to community orga-nizing. If you aren’t familiar with Foxworthy, he sets up his jokes (available onhis website), many with an activity or tendency followed by “then you justmight be a redneck.” For example,“If you list ‘staring’ as one of your hobbies,you just might be a redneck”and “If you put ammo on your Christmas list,youjust might be a redneck.” So let’s try it with the community organizer.“If youever looked into our public school system and saw that it was unequal, writingoff millions of low-income students, saying they can’t learn, then you justmight be a community organizer.” “If you ever fumed over our two-tieredhealth system and saw poor and working-class people avoiding medical treat-ment because they can’t afford health insurance, then you just might be a com-munity organizer.”“If you ever felt that it is unfair to have a federal minimumwage that keeps full-time workers and their families in poverty, then you just

2——CONSENSUS ORGANIZING

01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

might be a community organizer.” In each case, you see something grosslyunfair and want to work with those suffering these injustices. That desiremakes you a prime candidate to become a community organizer. If you have asense of outrage at the unfairness in our society, you are already halfwayacross the water, swimming toward the goals and aspirations of communityorganizers throughout history.You now just need to gain some skills and tech-niques and focus on an approach or approaches you are comfortable with.

If you have a desire to create change that leads to fairness and equity, youhave many different choices and paths to get you there. Sure, some organiz-ers really do get people angry at large rallies, but that is just one of the meth-ods you can choose. Let’s look at four approaches among many. (Hey, now’sthe time for that neat little chart with the bullet points.) Throughout the evo-lution of community organizing, people have tried to explain it in differentways. My attempt is simple. Don’t get lost in the terminology. Instead, try toimagine each approach and how you would do if you selected one or another.

FOUR APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Saul Alinsky and Conflict Organizing

The practice of community organizing is associated with one personmore than any other: Saul Alinsky.A good parallel in the practice of therapywould be a person you may have heard of at one time or another: SigmundFreud. Alinsky was born in Chicago in 1909. He was the son of immigrants,yet he managed to get through college studying archeology and criminol-ogy. His professional goal became the empowerment of everyday people. Hiswork began to attract attention when he zeroed in on the famous Chicagoneighborhood, Back of the Yards, and organized the Back of the YardsCouncil. This neighborhood acquired its unusual name because cows weresent by railroad from farms to be slaughtered and processed into meat atstockyards right in the middle of the community. Alinsky was interested inthis particular Chicago neighborhood partly because it was the very samearea that Upton Sinclair (1906) wrote about at the turn of the century in thebook The Jungle. Most of the wretched conditions that Sinclair describedstill existed more than 50 years later. People felt trapped in either jobless-ness or in jobs that paid low wages with dangerous working conditions.Workers lost fingers and hands using unsafe equipment. They were firedand replaced by new immigrants. They lived in unheated buildings withoutindoor plumbing.

Community Organizing: Conflict and Consensus——3

01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

Alinsky came into the neighborhood as an outsider using one of his mostimportant skills—listening. He listened to the complaints and frustrationsof the people there. He saw a pattern that prevented change. Each person feltisolated and alone, that only he or she was stuck in these miserable circum-stances. He knew he needed to be trusted by the residents. So he made aspecial effort to befriend the Catholic parish priests who could legitimizehis organizing effort. The “father” could say it was not only right for themembers to participate, but he could also prescribe or even require partic-ipation. Alinsky also painstakingly contacted other neighborhood institu-tions and organizations.

Alinsky distinguished between grassroots efforts and the efforts ofvarious social service programs, which he felt were under the control ofwealthy donors or unsympathetic government officials who would neverchoose the side of the oppressed when conflict occurred. He felt thatsocial workers were do-gooders who were strong on rhetoric but nowherearound when things got hot. He knew that the residents were sufferingfrom despair, apathy, and helplessness. He knew he had to confront thesebarriers or the neighborhood would remain powerless and continue tosuffer.

He attacked feelings of “there is nothing we can do about it” head on. Hefirst explained that residents needed power and that power comes in twodifferent forms—money and people. Of course, the people had very littlemoney but, on the other hand, there were certainly plenty of people. In thisset of awful circumstances, he was able to point out that there was greatpotential for change that could come from collective action.

Alinsky used tactics he became famous for—boycotts, strikes, and pick-ets. He disrupted meetings. He brought community people to places theywere uninvited and unwanted. He organized the “have-nots” against the“haves.” He would use anger as a motivator. He turned politicians againstone another. He polarized situations as a strategy. He personalized hisattacks. Instead of going after the bank, he went after the particular bankpresident, naming him and blaming him. He worried his targets by unifica-tion. After pressuring and pressuring his targets, concessions would beginto be granted. Rents were reduced. Municipal improvements were initiated.More equitable mortgages and bank loans were made. Fairer wages andbenefits were paid. His successes made him famous and in demand. Thisstyle of organizing that puts pressure on personalized targets to createimprovements is referred to as conflict organizing. It is still practiced todayall across the country.


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

Conflict Organizing—Using anger and blaming aselected, targeted individual by putting pressure on thetarget to create a concession and cause change

Women Centered Organizing

Alinsky talked about power as something others had. Often, those inpower did not treat the poor, women, or minorities fairly. He believed powershould be removed from those who abused it and transferred to theoppressed. Feminists and women centered organizers, on the other hand,believe in a different principle: power sharing. They are committed to creat-ing balanced power relationships through democratic practices of sharedleadership, decision making, authority, and responsibility. Many womencentered organizers believe that, without this approach, they would mirrormore traditional, hierarchical institutions. They would become part of theproblem instead of a part of a solution and a shining example. They believein equality and inclusion. One Canadian-centered group, the AdvisoryCouncil on the Status of Women in Feminism: Our Basis for Unity, succinctlysummarizes its view of power sharing:

Through the healthy practice of power sharing, we nurture an envi-ronment that is peaceful, empowering and respectful. We share powerthrough inclusion, consensus building and skills development. Otherpractices include validating women’s experiences, anticipating chal-lenge and conflict, including diverse voices, creating safe places, eval-uating our work and sharing roles and responsibilities. Respect is atthe root of successful power sharing, as is a genuine commitment tothe principles, practices and processes of feminism. To foster healthyand equitable power relationships among staff, board members andvolunteers we must demonstrate our commitment to feminist leader-ship rather than simply assume authority. (Advisory Council on theStatus of Women: Newfoundland & Labrador, n.d.)

It would be fun to bring back Saul Alinsky and have him compareapproaches with members of this advisory council. They have distinctly dif-ferent ideas about power. Some observers, such as Kristina Smock (2004) inDemocracy in Action, have commented on some of the trade-offs of whatshe calls the women centered model. She says there can be tension betweenprocess and product.


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

The emphasis on internal relationship building and inclusive decisionmaking can hinder the achievement of tangible action oriented out-comes. Providing participants with the personal support while help-ing them to discover the connection between their own problems andpublic issues can be an extremely time consuming process, one thatfrequently slows down the organization’s ability to move towardbroader action. Similarly, the insistence on including all voices andreaching genuine consensus can make it difficult for women centeredorganizations to move effectively from deliberation to action. (p. 253)

The women centered model emphasizes that relationships should not bebuilt on self-interest but rather on understanding and responsibility. It putsa high priority on personal development as well as community development.

Community Building Approach

Community Building—Forming collaborativepartnerships among a neighborhood’s stakeholders tostrengthen their internal capacity to solve their problems

Community builders believe that the internal social and economic fabricof a neighborhood needs to be strengthened. They believe that the biggestchallenge that people in neighborhoods face is the lack of capacity toaddress their own needs. Because many low-income communities are iso-lated and cut off by the traditional power structure, the rebuilding mustcome from within. Because people in these communities have been system-atically isolated, they need to “learn to trust one other, establish roles, andimprove from within.” This represents a new form of community organiz-ing. Organizers are faced with the challenge of developing the residents’assets and skills. They must not only harness and expand the skill base, butalso then build collaborations throughout the community. These collabora-tions must be built among various stakeholders in the neighborhood. Thisapproach sometimes tilts heavily toward staff. It includes some residents,but often those already in leadership positions, such as block club presi-dents, civic association chairpersons, and so on. It may shy away from otherresidents not affiliated with existing efforts. Also, the complexity of com-prehensive, neighborhood-wide efforts may overwhelm the “average” citi-zen, let alone the nonnative, non-English speaker or someone with very


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

little formal education. Organizers may have to overvalue those with degreesand expertise and existing positions of power and, by default, leave outothers. There is also some concern that the community building approachrequires multiple trade-offs and compromises to get everyone on the samepage. Many problems are not challenged or addressed.

The community building approach has been supported heavily by regionaland national philanthropies. They find comfort in the comprehensiveness,logic,and order of entire-community efforts.One community group steps for-ward and presents the philanthropy with an opportunity to play an invest-ment or grant-making role that feels comfortable and appropriate. Some ofthese philanthropies might not have supported conflict organizing (toodisruptive) or women centered organizing (too process oriented).

Consensus Organizing

Consensus Organizing—Tying the self-interest of thecommunity to the self-interest of others to achieve acommon goal

This has nothing but pluses, no shortcomings, and the guy connectedwith it is nothing short of a genius! Meanwhile, back on the planet earth,I will try my best to make this an objective introduction to a communityorganizing approach I happen to like. Consensus organizing requires you,the organizer, to do two parallel, simultaneous jobs. I can hear you now,“Hey, I already don’t like this one. It’s twice as much work!”Come on, where’sthat sense of dedication and commitment?

Some community building efforts are heavily reliant on governmentfunding. They can become dependent on this support for their continuedexistence. Saul Alinsky would call this “sleeping with the enemy” and feelthat such efforts would be in serious jeopardy of being co-opted and neverbuilding power.

A consensus organizer brings together interests within a neighborhoodin a way that is similar to the community builder approach, while at thesame time bringing together the political, economic, and social powerstructure from outside the neighborhood. We see both the internal andexternal players as equal participants loaded with dedicated, honest, fairparticipants. After both groups are organized, articulate, and focusedon their self-interest, you bring them together. This approach runs very


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

contrary to the conflict organizing ideas of Saul Alinsky and his disciples,and has something in common with the other two approaches. Alinskywould never see the power structure as a potential ally. In his mind, eliteswere the cause of problems and never part of a solution. They were onlyvaluable when they did what the community group demanded. On the otherhand, power sharing is talked about in the other models. The major differ-ence is that nobody else looks at the external forces affecting the commu-nity in quite the way a consensus organizer does.

The consensus organizer recognizes the value and power of mobilizinghonest and dedicated people from both groups—the community and thepower structure. Of course, there will also be prejudiced, self-serving, andarrogant individuals from both groups. The idea is to work around them.

Those who embrace consensus organizing see it as the most logical,natural, and sensible way to proceed. It resonates with how they think,choose their friends, and lead their lives. Others see it as a sellout, a publicrelations–driven, superficial effort that doesn’t begin to address the rootcauses of problems. There! I told you I’d be fair. Is the world composed of avariety of people who need to be skillfully brought together? Is it somethingyou’d like to know more about?

I’ve always been fascinated by the personalities of community orga-nizers and how their personalities might match some approaches betterthan others. I bet in your case, right here in Chapter 1, you feel you matchup better to one more than the other three. In my experience, most ofthose who are attracted to Alinsky and the conflict approach have a driveto correct unfairness by putting the blame where it belongs.You know thepersonality, “I’m right, you’re wrong, and I’ll prove it!” They see womencentered groups as not serious about taking action because they won’ttake power away from those who “don’t deserve it.” Community builderssee the need to create order and harmony from within. You know the per-sonality type, “Here we are, we’ve met, gotten to know one another, andwe agree.”A consensus organizer has the kind of personality that sees theactual and potential good in everyone. Think of pop icon Madonna. Somesee her as a manipulative, media-conscious chameleon that changes herimage over and over to maximize her earning power, never really believ-ing in anything. A consensus organizer could see her instead as a fasci-nating woman who started with nothing, came to New York from Detroitat 17, refused to be packaged and manipulated into someone’s idea ofwho she should be, and has evolved into, among other things, a caringmother and a writer of children’s books.


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

YOUR PERSONALITY AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Some students in the helping professions end up working in agency or insti-tutional settings. There, they tend to have the expertise and control, and theparent, resident, or child is the “client”who benefits from their expertise andgoodwill. The “helpers” see no connection to the messy business of com-munity organizing. They see no need to gain community organizing skills.They believe their personality suits the more structured, set approach ofbuilding a one-on-one relationship. Well, I’d like you to look a little deeperinto this with me. Let’s talk about the power relationship in more “clinical”settings. Sure, you have read ad nauseam, and have been taught time andtime again that you and the client are equals, but, the last time I checked,that’s not how the client sees it. In fact, I would venture to say that no matterhow hard you try and no matter how sincere you might be, the client willnever believe it. The client sees you with the expertise, you with the insights,you with the answers (also you with the paycheck, you with the degree, and,most times, you with a house or apartment in a different neighborhood).Most important, when there are only two of you in a room, there is no abil-ity for the client to help someone else. It is hard and sometimes downrightimpossible to create reciprocity. All you have done is to create a one-waystreet—you give, the client receives. In all forms of community organizing,however, the resident gets help and gives help. There are no one-way streets.Ideas come up as a group of people think together. Everyone feeds off of oneanother, which enhances creative thought. There can be a sense of belong-ing to the group and there is a sense of helping to work toward the greatergood. Your role as an organizer can change from moment to moment. Thisfluidity can increase effectiveness at moving along strategies for communityimprovement. One person might need your help in thinking ahead.Anothermight need your praise. Another might need you to be firm and consistent.

So I now ask you to imagine using one or more of the organizingapproaches mentioned. Do you have the type of personality that can thriveby getting in people’s faces and pushing them to do what is needed? Do youhave the type of personality that is comfortable with finding similaritiesand commonalities to minimize conflict? Do you feel equally comfortablewith both? What types of life experiences have shaped your view of fairnessand justice? Try to go back in your life and remember some sets of circum-stances when you were justifiably upset. Try to remember the times youmost wanted to change something that was bothering you. These are thetimes when you have seen your true organizing personality come out. It was


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

when you felt the need to change something that you chose strategies. It waswhen you were upset and frustrated yet determined to “fix it” that your ownorganizing style began to emerge. Did you try to appeal to someone else’ssense of fairness? Did you force someone into doing the “right” thing eventhough they didn’t want to? Did you get other people involved rather thantrying to change things all by yourself? You will see that you already mighthave done some community organizing even though you didn’t know thatwas what it was called. You might have tried to organize your brother andsister, an eighth-grade class, a high school coaching staff, or fellow churchmembers. These are all examples of organizing and you were the organizer.If you think and reflect, you may find that you already have begun doingsome of the work we are going to talk about. Some of you even may havepracticed consensus organizing. You even may have had some success. Youmay have done it naturally and never even known it by its name.

So let’s take a deep breath. Let’s go back to a time long ago and far away tomy hometown. Let’s hear a few stories about what it was like before the turnof the 21st century. What happened back in those dark days and how did itaffect the shaping of a different theory of community organizing? So put onyour boots. Put on your scarf. Put on your gloves. Button up that parka oryou’ll catch your death of cold, because you’re heading for Buffalo, New York.

THAT’S A SHAME

It snows a lot in Buffalo. It’s pretty windy, too. Some would describe it as ter-ribly bleak. Summer is nice, the whole 6 weeks. The other 46 are a littlerough. One old Buffalo joke goes, “What color do kids from Buffalo preferthe most? Gray. It’s the only color they have ever seen.” I get to tell such jokesbecause Buffalo is my hometown. My family’s neighborhood for the first21 years of my life was the Eastside of Buffalo. Holy Name of Jesus Parishwas our parish. Schiller Park was our park. We had stability on the Eastside.We did not have a lot of upward mobility. We never expected to move, letalone move up. Most families were big families, four, five, six kids.Almost allof these kids had Polish names—mine the German exception. I had to learnenough conversational Polish to drop a phrase here and there to fit in withmy friends’ families. Almost all these kids went to Holy Name School. I didand I remember it. What I remember most is that life on the Eastside ofBuffalo had a series of absolutes. There was good and bad, right andwrong—nothing in the middle. There were the golden gates of Heaven and


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

the chance of rotting everlasting in Hell. On a typical school day, I walked6 blocks to school, 6 blocks back home for lunch, and then repeated the tripeach afternoon. I estimate that on the walks I would meet 10 to 15 adults.Everyone knew my name. Every one of them had authority over me. If I wereup to anything, and I mean anything, every adult would feel obligated todiscipline me and then to tell my mom and dad, who would repeat the pro-cedure. Adults would never tell other adults that it was none of their busi-ness. They all believed it was their business.

My neighborhood had everything. I could walk or bike to Schiller Park,two movie theaters, two bowling alleys, three candy stores, a used comicbook store, a model train store,“the woods” (trees and open land to play in),railroad tracks with real trains and real hoboes, a public library, two pizzashops, four delis that sold baseball cards, and an ice cream parlor. I mean,what else do you need? I can honestly say that as a 12-year-old boy, Icouldn’t imagine a better place to live. That is, until one day when I went tothe dentist.

Our family dentist had his office in another neighborhood. My parentsdid not own a car so we had to get to the dentist by catching two buses.I went with my mom on each trip until I turned 12. At that time, sheannounced conclusively one evening without debate at dinner that I was oldenough to go by myself. I had a mixed reaction to this pronouncement.I liked the recognition that I had reached this rite of passage, but the den-tist’s office was in a different neighborhood. My mother gave me bus fare,wrote out the bus route numbers, and pushed me out the door. I felt like Iwas going to Siberia. (Hey, no more Buffalo jokes.) It seemed so far away.Years later, out of curiosity, I checked a street map. It was a journey MarcoPolo would have admired—6 miles. I arrived on time with no mishaps, butthe block walk from the bus to the dentist’s office was strange. Not one adultrecognized me. I did not like that. I went up to the receptionist, just past thetropical fish tank, and gave her my name. She, of course, wanted to knowwhere my mother was. Parking the car? “No, she had sent me by myself.” Thereceptionist then, matter-of-factly, just making conversation, asked whereI lived. I, equally matter-of-factly, told her. She looked up from the appoint-ment book, dropped her pen, and made a distinctive strange sort of cluck-ing noise with her tongue against her teeth. She slowly rotated her headfrom side to side and said pointedly from deep inside her throat, “Oooh,that’s a shame!” It was odd. I remember feeling neither happy nor sad. I wascompletely puzzled. The only time I remembered a reaction like this waswhen my friend’s dog died and he told my mom. Only now, there wasn’t adead dog. All I did was tell someone in a dentist’s office where I lived.


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

All the way home on the bus, I replayed what had happened. Slowly, I putthis puzzle together. The lady felt sorry for me. This made me mad. I did notwant her pity. She hadn’t been mean, but she might as well have been. If mydad had been there, he might have said she “meant well.”But I did not feel thatshe did. Why was I getting so upset? I got off the second bus and carefullylooked around.My neighborhood looked even better than I had remembered.It felt wonderful to be back. Then, something even stranger happened to me.It was a new feeling, starting from within my stomach, moving up my chest,and eventually spilling into my head. I felt resentment. I fought it at firstbecause she was an adult, she was to be respected, and she even worked in anoffice.She was clean when she came home from work.She didn’t need to washup. I was supposed to look up to her. If I had had a sister, she would havehoped to be successful like her. Despite all the thinking and analyzing, thisdeepening feeling of resentment could not be stopped. I couldn’t stop itbecause it felt so justified. She started it, not me. I did nothing to provoke this.I did not bring it upon myself. I resented her and her neighborhood. Therewas no way that she was better than my friends, my family, my school, or mystreet.The fact that she thought she was better proved she wasn’t. I didn’t needto discuss this with anyone. I assumed everyone older than me already hadfigured this out.I had sorted it out and come to an adult conclusion.I resentedher and my whole neighborhood would have resented her. That I felt this,I suppose, was just a shame.

When it was time to choose a high school, I chose a Catholic one. It waslocated way over on the other side of town. It advertised and promised thatevery kid who graduated would go on to college. I took that to mean evenkids from the Eastside. Most of the students would be Italian from theWestside of Buffalo. I surmised that I had little to worry about. My theorywas that the receptionist would have put these kids down, too. I was prettysure that because I felt I was equal to them, they would feel the same towardme. I was right. It was easy to be friends with them. It was a long trip backand forth, though. The bus trip required me to remain very, very alert. Afterall, I was required to wear a suit coat and a tie every day and carry Latinbooks while all the other Eastside kids got off at a public school along my busroute.This public school was not just any public school. It happened to be thepublic school you went to when you were thrown out of all the other publicschools. After a few weeks of taunts, stares, and dirty looks from most of theother kids on the bus, I started to develop additional theories. Because I haddone nothing to merit the negative treatment I was receiving, maybe I was asort of representative of all the other kids who were forced to dress like me.Maybe other kids who went to private schools thought they were superior


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

to my fellow travelers. I certainly didn’t. Slowly, it started to sink in. Theythought that I looked at them the way the receptionist had looked at me!Now, it all made sense. I guessed that this kind of stuff never ended.

My high school years were 1964 through 1968. I rode that bus route all4 years. Through riots, burnings, shootings, and curfews, I went to school.Bishop Fallon High School met its end of the bargain. I applied to and wasaccepted at three colleges. The cheapest by far was Buffalo State College so, ofcourse, that’s where I went. I had a conversation with my parents about mypreferred choice, Syracuse University. I talked for at least 20 minutes aboutwhy it was the best school for me. Syracuse had an excellent faculty, greatfacilities, solid academic programs, and so on. I was into my presentation.I did everything I could to convince my parents.At about the 15-minute mark,I noticed something. They had stopped listening. The last part must havesounded to them like blah, blah, blah, blah. I finally came up for air. Mymother said just eight words and with that it was all over. Those eight wordswere “How are you going to pay for it?” Man, Buffalo State never looked sogood. We had never discussed college in my family. It was always understoodthat if I wanted to go to college, it was up to me to figure out how to do it. If Idid not want to go, it would also be fine. Steel mills, the rubber plant, and theauto plant were all hiring.You could find work if that’s what you wanted. I sawanother life that I wanted instead. I wanted people to stop resenting me and tostart respecting me. I wanted people from my neighborhood to know that Iwas not better than they were. I wanted people from outside the neighbor-hood to know that I was not inferior. I did not think it was too much to ask.I wanted to find something within my new giant college that would becomemy balance beam.I felt my future would always be filled with judges and com-petitors. I needed to be a gymnast on a beam. I wanted every judge to see medifferently by finding something they admired.I wanted something that madeeach of them score my performance most positively. No matter how distinc-tive the particular judge, I wanted to give each of them something they appre-ciated and respected. I was going to find my way to do it in this college.

THE OUTSIDE AGITATOR

I started college in 1968. If I graduated on time, I would finish in the year1972. Many historians now rank those 4 years as some of the most, if not themost, turbulent in United States history. There was anything but apathy oncampus. During 2 of the 4 years, we had final exams canceled because of


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

antiwar protests and violence that ensued. The administration considered ittoo dangerous to continue teaching. In my 4 years, I was teargassed, chased,and interviewed by the FBI. It is still hard for me to relate college to any-thing but politics and foreign policy.

Buffalo State evolved from what was originally a teacher’s college. By thetime I entered, it had developed into a full-blown college with more than 40majors to choose from. People in my neighborhood, however, when hearingabout my acceptance, invariably showed their enthusiasm by shouting,“Mike’s going to State Teacher’s!” Whereas some of the students were localcommuters like me, many took the New York State Thruway to Buffalo fromother parts of the state, usually from New York City. It only took the firsthour of orientation to discover that the New York City kids were different.First, they seemed to think that Buffalo, the second-largest city in the state,was a farming community. I learned this because they said so, loudly andfrequently. When they made a point, they would use references that almostalways escaped me. Every 18-year-old from New York City seemed 35 yearsold to me. They had so much experience and so much attitude. How couldthey all have done so much, seen so much, felt so much at such a young age?The point was, I found them fascinating. I never let their attitude build awall around me and stop me from befriending them. One of my favoriteways to bond was to invite them to my family’s home and show them myneighborhood. My gritty community was suddenly an asset. It workedpretty much every time. They then treated me as an equal. I learned a lotabout politics from them. Many of them were very active in the civil rights,women’s rights, and antiwar movements. They read a lot and would loan metheir books. I joined the Student Convocation Committee, in which I helpedselect the speakers who would be invited to campus. The committee wasalmost entirely composed of New York City activists. You can imagine howthe members leaned politically when they selected their speakers. Theyleaned decidedly left (very liberal).

Committee members had responsibilities for each speech. Some wrotepress releases, some put up posters, some distributed tickets, and some didthe grunt work. Once a year, however, when you were selected to organize theentire convocation, the duties became even more intense. The responsibilitieswere more complex.You negotiated the contract, did the introduction, fieldedinquires, and assigned all the other committee members to the varioustasks—excellent experience for a 19-year-old. If you had to take on all thisresponsibility, you certainly wanted it to be directed toward a famous personthat you wanted to meet.You wanted your speaker.You were prepared to lobbyand twist the arms of other committee members to get your first choice.


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

In one of my sociology classes, Analyzing Social Problems, we read abook called Crisis in Black and White (Silberman, 1966). We read about acommunity organizer named Saul Alinsky from Chicago. He caught myattention. He motivated people to have much higher expectations, an ideathat thrilled me. Every page seemed like free gas flowing into an empty tank.I must have been like the young actor, musician, or athlete who screamsexcitedly one day,“You mean, I can get paid to do this?” What he was doingresonated with me. Here I was reading about this guy who went into neigh-borhoods like mine, got all the residents together, and fought and wonimprovements from government, corporations, and landlords. I was mes-merized. Not only was he able to do this, he was also alive and he madespeeches.

At our selection meeting, committee members chose Bernadette Devlin,Father James Groppi, Jonathan Kozol, and Cesar Chavez. If we successfullynegotiated with their agents, we would then be promoting them, meetingthem at the airport, eating dinner with them, introducing them, and gettingto know them. I couldn’t believe my good fortune. I was on the committeebecause the members thought I brought some perspective, ability, and goodwork habits. Timidly at first, I dropped the name of Saul Alinsky. After all,I had read that he was the guy who helped train Cesar Chavez, the success-ful leader of immigrant farmworkers. It was Chavez who organized an effec-tive national grape boycott, forcing the growers to improve workers’ wagesand living conditions. As luck would have it, the more I dug up aboutAlinsky, the more excited I became, and the more excited committee mem-bers became. It turned out that his organization, the Industrial AreasFoundation, had trained and sent organizers to Rochester, New York, just 70miles away. That information paled in comparison to his reported explo-ration of expansion into Buffalo, New York. Actually, the Industrial AreasFoundation saw great possibilities in one particular Buffalo neighborhood,the Eastside! That meant that Alinsky himself would be coming to work inmy neighborhood. He would be flying in from Chicago, landing at the air-port in Buffalo, and be driven into my own neighborhood to cause trouble.He would be legitimately referred to as an outside agitator. I was more deter-mined than ever. He had to speak at my campus and I had to organize it. Itwas in the cards, it was fate, it was destiny.

The committee unanimously approved my recommendation and I wasput in charge of the operation. By this time, I was completely engrossed inthe idea of community organizing. I befriended a faculty member whointroduced me to the local Industrial Areas Foundation staff memberassigned to build the Buffalo program. I felt that with some experience,


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

I could do what he was doing. I could motivate, engage, and I could strate-gize. Organizing strategy, staying ahead of everyone else became my maininterest. I attended every meeting I could. I met and admired paid profes-sional organizers. I thought all of this would help prepare me for the nightof my life when I would meet and introduce the most famous communityorganizer in the entire world, Saul Alinsky.

Without my knowledge, however, another group of New York State tax-payers had their own take on the situation. They had organized to expresstheir distress about their taxes being used to pay people who “hatedAmerica” to come to our campus and poison students’ minds. They targeteda group on the Buffalo State campus that had taken the lead in the poison-ing. It was my committee. The last straw, apparently, was the decision tobring in Saul Alinsky, identified by them as a communist. Unlike otherpotential speakers, he wanted to stir up trouble right in Buffalo. These NewYorkers wrote letters to the newspapers, appeared on television, anddemanded to meet the campus president and the New York State UniversityTrustees. They also intended to show up, in force, to protest Alinsky’sspeech. Ironically, they were going to protest the protester. Alinsky, uponhearing this from his staff, was ecstatic. With no small ego, he was now thecenter of controversy, a place he found warm and comforting. I realized Ihad fallen into a wonderful situation myself. Reporters constantly called myhouse for quotes. The protesters wanted me to cancel the appearance. Theentire swirl was rapidly leading to my first opportunity to meet Alinsky.What a great set of circumstances in which to be introduced. I got to do myfavorite thing—strategize. How could I use this once-in-a-lifetime oppor-tunity to show him my organizing ability? What would he do if he were inmy shoes? I remember how clearheaded I felt when a light bulb slowlyfloated into the air and paused above me.

I called the media and announced that because of massive pressure fromcitizens groups, I would reluctantly be making an announcement about amajor change in committee policy on bringing in speakers. The announce-ment would be made immediately prior to Mr. Alinsky’s address. I sug-gested that all the concerned taxpayers attend. Then, I also called all theactivist groups on campus and told them the same thing. This meant wewere guaranteed an overflow crowd, some who were there in hopes of hear-ing about a future ban on people like Alinsky, and some who were there toput pressure on making sure that there was no change. I hoped this wouldimpress him. The committee designed posters with Alinsky’s quote,“WhenI die I’m going to Hell and organize.”There was a huge buzz all over campus.Even people who a month earlier had never heard of Alinsky were now


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

keenly interested in him. I felt like a boxing promoter. My job was to fire upboth sides, so they would all show up.

Controversy can create interest. Interested people getinvolved. I felt that the more controversial his visitbecame, the more successful it would be.

I invited my parents to the speech and some of our neighbors as well. Theactivists from campus showed up in full force. The taxpayer activists alsoshowed up in droves.All the chairs were filled 30 minutes before the scheduledstart. The aisles filled up as well. I prayed the fire marshals wouldn’t show up.The television stations,radio stations,and newspapers were all there and all setup.I had organized it.Alinsky barreled into a room behind the stage with a fewof his staff members, right on time. He wore a dark suit and a narrow tie.I remember that he looked huge and I felt very small. I spoke aggressivelyabout the circumstances surrounding his speech and said I was going to makea major announcement. I was trying to make him nervous. He wasn’t. He lis-tened very well. He said very little. I brought my parents backstage to meethim. My dad told him I wanted to be a community organizer.

It was time. I walked onto the stage and faked nervousness. I was in frontof the largest crowd I had ever spoken to. I cleared my throat. The audiencewas markedly and physically divided. The activists on both sides had theirown signs and posters. Pockets of people with pointed opinions clung to oneanother in clumps woven like a giant quilt patched together. I spoke veryslowly. Alinsky was staring at me from behind the curtain at the side of thestage.“As you know, me and our student committee have been under tremen-dous pressure these last few weeks.” I wanted each word to mean somethingto both sides of the audience. Now this was fun. I spoke about how we asstudents were obligated to listen to criticism with respect and reflection. Asstudents, we were bound to the wishes of our financial supporters, the tax-payers. I pushed it so far; all the activists were on the edge of their seats, readyto explode in fury, as I appeared to be caving in. There they sat and stood,watching me apparently sell out. Then, with the rest of the audience drawingthe same conclusion, I put the hammer down with my final remark.“So, withvery careful thought and consideration, I stand before you all tonight toannounce that the convocation committee of Buffalo State College will nolonger be bringing young, radical, left-wing, liberal speakers onto our cam-pus. (Pause.) We are instead going to bring in old, left-wing, radical speakers!Ladies and gentleman, Saul Alinsky!” The whole room erupted; it was like a


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

courtroom hearing the verdict for an accused murderer,“Not guilty.” I felt likeI was 10 feet in the air, as if time was standing still.Alinsky came charging outfrom behind the curtain, leaned down, grabbed my shoulder hard, and yelledin my ear “That was the worst [expletive]ing introduction I have received inmy entire life.” His smile, however, told me all I needed to know. I hadimpressed him. I was going to be a community organizer. I felt that I had a“feel” for moving large groups of people to where they needed to go. I felt thatmaybe I had found the “gift” that all of us seem to have: a gift for something.Some have an athletic gift, some an artistic gift, or some a gift for sales or lawor medicine. I felt my gift was in organizing, to get justice for those whodeserved it. I felt an obligation to use my gift. What if a gifted artist couldplease Vincent Van Gogh or the gifted basketball player could please LarryBird? Wouldn’t they, then, want to paint or play ball? I had just successfullyperformed in front of the greatest community organizer in the world and hehad recognized my gift.

The world we live in is full of injustice. There are things you see every daythat need to be changed. Change can be achieved through many differentapproaches. We all see the world we share through different eyes. I wantedto create change. I had begun to choose a path to get there.

Now, I want you to start to think about yourself. We are at a spot at whichyou get a chance to reflect. Please do not skip ahead. Take some time and pon-der the following questions. Some of them will be fun; but some will takesome time. Share your thoughts with others and be curious about how theyanswer the same questions. Check in the back of the book in the “Answers” toReflection Questions section for some input from yours truly. This is impor-tant because it should make you think even more. Look under the “answers”for Chapter 1. Then, and only then, move on to the next chapter.

Reflection Questions

1. If Saul Alinsky were alive today, what would he be doing? Whatissues would he be addressing?

2. Which speakers would you bring into your school if you were incharge of the convocations committee?

3. What has happened in your life that makes you want to helppeople?

4. What style of organizing matches your personality?

5. How did the community you grew up in affect you as an adult?

6. Would you ever want to visit Buffalo?


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

REFERENCES

Advisory Council on the Status of Women: Newfoundland & Labrador. (N.d.).Feminism: Our basis for unity. Retrieved March 3, 2004, from http://pacsw.com

Fisher, R. (1994). Let the people decide: Neighborhood organizing in America(Updated ed.). Boston: Twayne.

Silberman, C. E. (1966). Crisis in black and white. New York: Random House.Sinclair, U. (1906). The jungle. New York: Doubleday.Smock, K. (2004). Democracy in action: Community organizing and urban change.

New York: Columbia University Press.


01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

01-Eichler-45128.qxd 11/24/2006 11:56 AM

community organizing - sage publications inc · community organizing conflict and consensus in this...

Documents